I know it�s been 8 years since Antz and A Bug�s Life were released but it still seems too early to produce another ant-themed animated movie. It was rather fun at first to see how the filmmakers sketched the underground ant communities and embellished the rather dull, quick-death-filled lives of the millions of drones therein. But as a result I feel like I�ve had my fill of talking cartoon ants and their craaazeee antics. Given that The Ant Bully isn�t a patch on its predecessors either it�s a sad indictment of writer/director John. A Davis that he spent those 8 years going backwards.
The problems with The Ant Bully are many, from the basic premise, to the voice casting, all the way down to the lack of imagination and dishwasher-dull plot. The movie focuses on Lucas Nickle (Tyler), a small, friendless, bullied little boy who vents his limitless frustration on the tiny ants whose hill is somehow tolerated on his parent�s otherwise immaculate front yard. Sick of the death (we presume) and destruction, a wizard ant (yes, seriously) named Zoc (Cage) conjures up a potion which, once applied, turns �Peanut the Destroyer� bug-sized, allowing for him to be put on trial for his crimes.
Now, if we ignore for a moment this absurd hypothesis (though it is a kids movie, few dare use magic, bugs and humans together) we still find a whole host of problems. The voice casting is shocking, with a miscast Cage the biggest culprit. As an actor Cage is acceptable, as a voice he is infuriatingly annoying and nasal. As a vengeful, heroic, wizard ant he just doesn�t pass mustard. Julia Roberts as Hova is anonymous, Paul Giamatti�s exterminator is no different to Thomas Haden Church�s Dwayne in Over the Hedge (having both starred in Sideways, they clearly collaborated here), and Tyler�s Lucas Nickle is no different than all the other 50�s-skewed animated children we are lumped with every year.
There is simply no originality in The Ant Bully whatsoever. Every character, every event, every action scene has been recycled from other animated films of the last few years. Davis might just as well have cut and pasted Pixar and Dreamworks movies together, and not bothered with his own work. No one would have noticed the difference. The wasps are the locusts from A Bug�s Life, the other bugs Flik�s friends, the warren and artificial communist theology the work of Antz. I can go on and on. If this is the best Warner Bros. can come up with, then God help them. |
